


Long Enough

by Aria Serif (Mysterie), Mysterie



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Black Ink!Sans (Blink)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:00:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24522760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysterie/pseuds/Aria%20Serif, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysterie/pseuds/Mysterie
Summary: You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.~ Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> How a single event led to the creation of one of the most dangerous threats to the multiverse ...

Fists clenched, the skeleton retreated into the portal; his enemy's laughter following him to the place that he called home. A white expanse where there was nothing to really see but white... no real "floor" or "ceiling" as one would expect in any given place. The Anti-Void was not just any place. It was the place that he, Ink Sans, called home. It had been home for as long as he could remember and he **hated** every single moment he spent there. Except for the moment he didn't really care too much about it. He checked his vials, one of them had a crack in it but nothing he couldn't fix easily enough. He felt like everything was crumbling around him. He had lost. AGAIN. He had failed. **Again.** An entire universe that had been filled with life was now nothing but a barren wasteland... _Again._ He had lost count some time ago how many times he had clashed with the Destroyer of Worlds, the one called Error. 

  
  
All those hopes, dreams, lives that had been counting on him.... he had failed every. single. one. Why was this so difficult? Why was it so hard to stop Error? He didn't even understand why the other was so hellbent on destroying everything around him. He had tried to befriend the other so many times... How often had he shown Error mercy and gotten none in return? The other, glitchy, skeleton was different from him in nearly every way and there was little that Ink had done in which the other had accepted. That they lived in identical places just made it worse. Error lived in a different version of the Anti-Void that was parallel to his own, but unlike the expansive white, Error's had held nothing but darkness and from what little he knew about his rival, that darkness had driven Error insane. Ink wasn't the only one who had tried to fix him, but so far no one had been able to reach the broken minded skeleton. 

  
  
It seemed to be the same in every place he went. Being a protector of the AUs, Ink was keenly aware of the other multiverses that existed. Many that were like his in so very many ways but each one had something else happen in it that would change things; and like every other Sans in existence... Error and Ink both had once had their own worlds. Error had been ripped from his, not that he remembered any of that anymore really after he'd become mad from the loss of his world; Ink, on the other hand, came from a world that had never been finished and had ultimately vanished, but he didn't remember any of this because he had been so overcome with the emotions he'd had that his companions had lacked that he had destroyed his own soul in frustration, anger and pain only to be dropped into the Anti-Void where he had waited like a doll until the first color from a Creator's creation had dumped upon him and he had learned to collect it so that he could feel. It had been after that in which he had made the purpose for himself to create new AUs and protect them.

  
  
They've clashed so many times now that Ink can no longer remember the very first time or place that had brought him face-to-face with Error, who had been ruining an AU. Ink's memory was short and thus he often scribbled down important notes on the scarf he wore to hide the markings on his bones; markings he believed to be tattoos, but in truth was evidence of the Void touching him when he had passed through it before being dumped into the Anti-Void. He sat down now, staring at his gloved hands. The white bone contrasting to the brown leather he wore. It wasn't long before the material darkened with tears. Soon after he began to shake and sobs wracked his form as his failure washed over him. He was supposed to be their protector! They were supposed to be able to depend on him! He should have been able to save them! Just like he had UnderFell, UnderSwap and countless others. It wasn't supposed to be like this! The good guys were supposed to win the day... always! And yet... he had failed yet again. Pain shuddered through the small skeleton.

  
  
The empty void offered no solace, no comfort to the wailing guardian. The one who had often reassured others that they were in no danger as long as he was around... had no one to reassure him. No one to give him the care that others got from him or the attention. It was all so fleeting...

  
  
Few even cared to remember who he was despite how many times he'd been there. Sans always remembered, but he seemed to be the only one and Ink didn't travel often to the Alpha Timeline for any reason. It simply wasn't something any of them needed to do because all of those who existed, whether or not they were even aware of the Alpha Timeline, there was one core truth that rang instinctively in them all. That was that no one was to mess with it. It was like the heart of everything, the source of all creation for the AUs, including for Ink himself. There was only one timeline that existed in that universe in dominance, the Pacifist route; while there were countless threads that veered off in many timelines as to the Alpha Timeline, there was no other route that predominated that universe. Thus the human Frisk had freed all of the monsters and had not dusted a single one of them; there was perpetual peace. A concept that currently eluded Ink.


	2. Chapter 2

He stared into the vast whiteness. How he despised it, feared it even... but at the same time he felt he deserved every ounce of fear and pain that he felt. He pulled out a book that he'd been making on the various worlds that existed; because he had such a short memory he had to write everything down and this book he carried was tied to him by some magic spell he'd long since forgotten He flipped through its pages and pulled out a red colored pencil. Above the name "Flowerfell" he wrote a simple word. Empty. 

  
  
That was all he could use to describe the worlds he couldn't save. He flipped through the book he had, starting with the first.

  
  
Underswap - Three survivors, Asgore (Gorey), Papyrus (Orange), Flowey (Floe) MIA: Sans (Blue)  
Underfell - Two survivors, Sans (Red) and Papyrus (Edge)  
Swapfell - Two MIA: Sans (Raspberry) and Papyrus (Mutt)  
Horrortale - Empty  
AbyssTale - One MIA: Sans (Abyss)

  
  
He flipped past DreamTale and AfterTale, those two had been left alone... but for how long?

  
  
Underbite - Empty  
UnderDream - Empty  
Undersung - Empty  
Unknownfile - One survivor, MIA: anomaly  
Outertale - Empty  
Underlust - Empty  
Gerytale - Empty  
x-Tale - Empty  
Memotale - Empty  
Raventale - Empty  
AsylumTale - Empty  
Positale - Empty  
Negatale - Empty  
Justified - One survivor, MIA: Sans (Justice)  
Dancetale - Empty  
OmegaTale - Empty  
Underfresh - Empty  
Zombietale - Empty  
BittyBones - Empty   
Upper-Upper - Empty  
AdoptTale - Empty  
Overgrowth - Empty

  
  
The list just went on and on. He closed the book with a sigh. Sure he made new places, but he felt so empty, so... useless.... so many worlds... so many friends... all of them just, gone. Like they had never been and Error always taunting him. Saying that there should only ever be one... the Alpha Timeline. The one place Error would never go. Would never hurt... 

  
  
He had no soul. How could he feel this much pain? It was the vials, he knew it was, but he didn't dare discard them. They were the only thing that made him anything close to normal that all other monsters enjoyed. After all, there were no other monsters like him who were soulless, well besides the many versions of Flowey and even then those sometimes gained a soul somehow or another. He tucked the pencil away and sat down, putting his head into his hands as he began to sob all over again. 

  
  
Why did this keep happening? Why was he still losing to Error? Shouldn't he have been dusted by now or something? Why did Error always leave him alive? He didn't understand it, a part of him wanted to disappear but another part of him told him that there were others. He could protect them. the pain burned through him and he wondered again why this was happening to him. Why couldn't he just win? The sounds of their screams, the begging pleas for a savior as they were ripped from life rang in his skull. Even the human, with the power of reset, couldn't help their friends and there was always one monster who fought valiantly to the end... one monster who either sometimes injured Error before dusting or managed to survive... the Judge. 

  
  
Ink had no idea why this was. No matter who was the Judge, they were the one to always survive if anyone did. He'd no idea where the survivors were and maybe that was for the best. A time or two he'd been ensnared and Error had tried to torture the information from him but Ink had no answer. It was just as much of a mystery to him and as long as Error was on the loose he figured it was best left unsolved. The guardian passed out, exhausted from the pain and the tears he had spent; his body aching from the wounds of battle. He would survive to fight again. His wounds would heal, his body would mend and his mind would soon forget the nightmares that tore at him. Though even in sleep there was no escape from the faint echoing cries from worlds lost... 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Underswap (c) Pop1cornprince   
> Underfell (c) ???  
> Swapfell (c) Swapfell  
> Horrortale (c) Sour-Apple-Studios  
> AbyssTale (c) Meta-Kaz  
> Underbite (c) AGuardianOfDreams  
> UnderDream (c) AGuardianOfDreams  
> Undersung (c) AGuardianOfDreams  
> Unknownfile (c) gorillazfan666  
> Outertale (c) 2mil27  
> Underlust (c) nsfwshamecave  
> Gerytale (c) AGuardianOfDreams  
> x-Tale (c) JakieArtwork  
> Memotale(c) BlurryNightSky  
> Raventale (c) Texanna7  
> AsylumTale (c) Blackroses112  
> Positale (c) ReneesDetermination  
> Negatale (c) ReneesDetermination  
> Justified (c) Texanna7  
> Dancetale (c) Trendstars & Sterrenschijnse  
> OmegaTale (c) The - RL - Bonehead  
> Underfresh (c) loverofpiggles  
> Zombietale (c) zombie-frisk  
> BittyBones (c) bittybones-au  
> Upper-Upper (c) MichPajamaArtist  
> AdoptTale (c) community  
> Overgrowth (c) Siviosanei


	3. Chapter 3

Useless.

  
  
What was the point? He couldn't save these worlds... and those were just a few of the many he'd failed. Every time he created another he'd just find Error destroying two more... Was there any reason for his continuing to create? If Error was just going to destroy everything then wouldn't it be a mercy to not create any more? Wouldn't it just better to... 

  
  
He stared at the book, then at broomy. Well, the pieces of his weapon. How many times had it been broken or busted by Error or one of the others who considered him their enemy? Nightmare... Cross... Gaster... just to name a few of the countless who had attacked his weapon and either snapped it in two or cracked it or left some sort of other form of damage on it. He had long since lost count how many times he had put his most precious tool back together... Anger. Frustration welled up inside of the artist as he stared at the broken thing that had been tossed after him as he'd been forced to retreat to repair it... again. 

  
  
It was just... not fair. Why was he the outcast when he spent so much time and energy creating things for others and yet he was alone. In this white wasteland. No, it wasn't even a wasteland because a wasteland would be something and the Anti-Void didn't have even a floor. There was no end to any of it. This had gone on long enough. Too long honestly. He felt something well up inside. What was... going on? He stared at his hands as a black aura suddenly seemed to surround him. What was...? His fingers were now all black and suddenly the silence around him didn't seem so bad. He began to laugh a little. It was time for a change.... 

  
  
So they didn't want him huh? Error was right. They were all just glitches. They needed to be silenced....


End file.
